11.19.07

Chavez and Ahmadinejad must be long lost brothers. They are both tyrannical control freaks who love to use their country’s oil supply to threaten the rest of the world.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez brought his revolutionary zeal to the cartel that controls 40 percent of the world’s oil, urging fellow members at a weekend summit to fight against “imperialism” and “exploitation.”

Chavez used the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to advance a struggle for the soul of the cartel. Countering him was the conference host, Saudi King Abdullah, who said the organization’s goal was simply to produce prosperity.

Their contrasting visions elbowed aside the usual OPEC talk about production quotas and currency fluctuations. In the short term at least, Abdullah’s vision is likely to prevail, said Ihsan Bu-Hulaiga, who runs a private business consulting firm in Riyadh and advises the Saudi government.

“OPEC has to do with oil; it cannot solve the world’s problems with a political agenda,” he said. “It would be putting its bread and butter at risk.”

Support for Chavez came from President Rafael Vicente Correa of Ecuador and from Iran’s Mahmoud , whose nation is the target of a U.S.-led campaign of sanctions and pressure over allegations that it is pursuing nuclear weapons and destabilizing the region.

There are so many things wrong with this story, I cannot begin to list them all. If ever there was an example of what the Bible calls ‘the falling away of the church’, this is it.

A Lutheran church in Chicago has ordained a 27-year-old lesbian pastor who refuses to take a vow of celibacy, becoming the first to test a new resolution that gives bishops leeway in disciplining such violations.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America requires vows of celibacy for homosexual but not for heterosexual clergy — a policy Jen Rude calls discriminatory.
Rude said her call to ministry has now been “affirmed not only by God but the people of God.”
At a national assembly in August, Evangelical Lutherans urged their bishops not to defrock gay and lesbian ministers who violate the celibacy rule, but they also rejected measures that would have permitted ordaining gays churchwide.
Chicago Bishop Wayne Miller did not try to block Rude’s ordination, but he also didn’t attend the weekend ceremony.

We should always pray for Israel, but now more than ever they need our prayers.

The IDF is in a heightened state of alert ahead of the Annapolis summit next week, out of fear that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will try to perpetrate a large-scale terror attack to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, defense officials said Sunday.

The officials said there were currently 10 specific warnings concerning Palestinian plans to launch a terror attack before the summit.

The officials said that while there was no concrete intelligence that the warnings were connected to the peace summit, which is scheduled to be held at the Annapolis Naval Academy next Monday, the assumption was that terror groups – particularly Islamic Jihad and Hamas – would try to perpetrate an attack to spoil the peace efforts.

“There is a concerted effort today by Hamas and other terror groups to derail the talks,” a defense official said. “One of the ways to do that is to carry out a large-scale attack inside Israel.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Al-Yahya said on Sunday that PA security forces had busted a number of Hamas cells in the West Bank. Yahya told the Kuwaiti newspaper A-Rai that the cell members had armed themselves and had been training to seize control of PA institutions in the West Bank.

“We started with Fatah’s armed wing – the Aksa Martyrs Brigades – so no one could say we were being hypocritical. Then we’ll take apart Hamas’s armed wing,” he said. “We will collect all the illegal weapons.”

Israeli defense officials said the PA security forces were doing an effective job in cracking down on Hamas in Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm, and as a result the terror group had begun to transfer its operations out of the larger cities and into nearby villages.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the twenty-six of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that Great and Glorious Being, who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country, previous to their becoming a nation; for the single manifold mercies, and the favorable interposition’s of His providence, in the courage and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of Government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the Great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private institutions, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discretely and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us) and to bless them with good governments, peace and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science, among them and us; and generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

As the United States prepares for its upcoming Middle East peace conference to be held in Annapolis, God is, in my opinion, drawing our attention to the fact that He is keeping a close eye on developments concerning this most blessed of nations lending an ear to Israel’s enemies and, in fact, providing them with support to obtain portions of Israel’s God-given covenant lands.

How is God drawing the attention of those willing to see the spiritual connotations of events transpiring in the world around us as Annapolis draws near, potentially placing our nation in great peril of coming up on the curse side of God’s promise of blessing and curse recorded in Genesis 12:3? He’s drawing our eyes toward Yellowstone – and dramatically so of late, in my opinion.

The Independent recently unveiled an article on its site entitled “Yellowstone: the time bomb under America.”

The opening lines of the article are anything but comforting, reading as follows (emphasis added mine):

“Deep beneath Yellowstone National Park lies a vast super-volcano which, if it blew up, could devastate much of the US. Recently, it’s been a bit too restless for comfort.”

Too restless for comfort indeed when we consider that Annapolis may well bring us closer to what European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is saying is “doable” within nine months, referring to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians that would birth a Palestinian state on Israel’s covenant lands!

Conclusions

Trying to find the United States of America in Bible prophecy is like looking for a needle in a haystack. May Yellowstone be an answer as to why? I’m not sure but the last paragraph of the Independent’s article certainly doesn’t close the door on that being a possibility (emphasis added mine):

And what if the ground at Yellowstone does not start to go down? Well, these calderas, he admits, “occasionally they burp”. Let’s hope the park’s belly-ache resolves itself – such a “burp” would shake half of the planet.

In spite of God’s clear warning provided in Genesis 12:3 that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her, the United States, potentially within a year of a peace deal coming into existence that may well lead to the prophesied cries of “peace and safety” foretold in 1st Thessalonians 5:3, is casting God’s Word aside in spite of many Christian leaders and Jewish rabbis publicly warning against the United States helping Israel make what Bible prophecy clearly demonstrates to us is the equivalent of a covenant with hell is anything but wise!

I don’t know about any of you but, if I was sitting on a time bomb, I think I’d be careful concerning how my actions might influence the outcome of my predicament, especially if the bomb’s designer was watching my every move with trigger in hand and I’d been amply forewarned by those who know him best that certain practices of mine could lead to disaster for me!

But that’s just me.

May the Lord have mercy on those He is willing to, particularly those of us who love Him and fear His righteous judgments.

WASHINGTON – Dire “global warming” predictions are based on bad science from the very start, says a veteran meteorologist who found surface temperatures recorded throughout the U.S. are done so with almost no regard to scientific standards.

As a result of his shocking initial findings that temperature monitoring stations were constructed and placed without regard to achieving accurate recordings of natural temperatures, Anthony Watts set out to investigate the facilities used by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

What he found were temperature stations with sensors on the roofs of buildings, near air-conditioning exhaust vents, in parking lots near hot automobiles, barbecues, chimneys and on pavement and concrete surfaces – all of which would lead to higher temperature recordings than properly established conditions.

To qualify as a properly maintained temperature station, sensors must be placed in elevated, slatted boxes on flat ground surrounded by a clear surface on a slope of less than 19 degrees with surrounding grass and vegetations ground cover of less than 10 centimeters high. The sensors must be located at least 100 meters from artificial heating or reflecting surfaces, such as buildings, concrete surfaces and parking lots.

Watts’ concerns about the temperatures being used to gauge whether global warming is actually taking place began when he read a 1997 study by the U.S. National Research Council that concluded the consistency and quality of temperature stations was “inadequate and deteriorating.” Meanwhile, he learned, the U.S. Historical Climatological Network, responsible for maintaining the stations, was doing nothing to address the problems.

So Watts decided to take up the challenge himself. After surveying a few randomly chosen temperature stations and being shocked at the shortcomings, he set forth on a plan to survey all 1,221 stations, taking photographs along the way. With the help of volunteers, Watts has systematically surveyed one-third of the official weather stations.

The vast majority of the stations surveyed to date fail to meet the prescribed standards. Using a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 reflecting proper maintenance and standards and 5 representing facilities that are severely compromised, Watts says 70 percent of those stations surveyed received a 4 or 5 rating, while only 4 percent received a grade of 1.

All of the most egregious violations he has observed in the study would result in artificially higher temperatures being recorded.

The government of Israel has let it be known that Israeli Air Force pilots are currently undergoing training for a tactical NUCLEAR strike against Iran’s nuclear program to prevent Ahmadinejad from getting the Bomb.

The Israelis intend to use precision laser bombs followed up by low-yield tactical nuclear bunker-buster bombs to hit Iran’s hardened underground facilities. The training exercise calls for the use of two Israeli Air Force squadrons to carry out the attack.

The London Sunday Times quoted one of its sources saying, “As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished.”

Israeli intelligence assessments conclude that conventional weapons won’t be enough to totally annihilate the three main targets, a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan, the heavy water reactor at Arak, and the Natanz facility that Ahmadinejad boasted now has 3,000 centrifuges online.

Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear program for years and prevent the Jewish State from living in fear of sudden nuclear destruction from the east.

Noted Israel Insider, “Dr. Ephraim Sneh, the former deputy Israeli defense minister, said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.”

But he lamented that; “At the end of the day it is always down to the Jews to deal with the problem.”

The Insider also reported that the US “is believed to be backing away from military action in Iran, and the new US defense secretary, Robert Gates, has described a strike against Iranian targets as a “last resort”, leading Israelis to believe that it will be left to the IAF to strike.”

Moreover, the Insider said Israeli officials do not expect to get a green light from the US to use tactical nukes — the IAF intends to operate unilaterally as necessary.

If the IAF plans proceed to fruition, Israel will be the first nation to use a nuclear weapon against an enemy since the United States dropped “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945.

A number of US analysts believe that Israel leaked the story to the London Sunday Times deliberately as a message to Iran.

The Israeli Insider quoted one such analyst, who told them;

“In the cold war, we made it clear to the Russians that it was a virtual certainty that nukes would fly and fly early. Israel may be adopting the same tactics: ‘You produce a weapon; you die’.”

I don’t doubt that Israel wants Iran to know that it intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons. Israel no doubt also wanted the world to know of its intentions in advance in order to gauge global reaction.

It is worth remembering that this story originated with the London Sunday Times, which is Great Britain’s answer to the New York Times as that nation’s newspaper of record — (except the London Times still has the international credibility once shared by the Gray Lady in New York).

The point is, this story is NOT some unsourced rumor picked up from an internet blog. It was the featured report in one of Great Britain’s oldest and most prestigious newspapers, read in capitals the world over.

And it reported that Israel was preparing for a first-use nuclear strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities! The world’s reaction was. . . it was . . well, ummm . . . I ran a Google news search on the keywords “Israel” “tactical” and “nuclear” to see.

There were TWO articles — one from YnetNews and the other from the Israel Insider. Both hyperlinked to the London Times report, but apart from that, there appears to be a deafening silence. No outraged editorials from the Saudis or Egyptians or from al-Jazeera. No protests in the streets.

In 1981, when Saddam was about to flip the switch that would bring his Osirek nuclear processing plant online, Israel began conducting training simulations that telegraphed their intention to destroy it.

The global reaction in 1981 was not unlike the reaction to the Times’ report. Even the Arabs remained silent, and in the decades since, there has been an unspoken acknowledgment that Israel did the world a favor.

It would seem the world is prepared to accept another favor from the Jewish State.

JERUSALEM – The U.S. is pressuring Israel to meet a long-standing obligation to freeze all West Bank settlement construction ahead of a high-profile Mideast conference, rejecting Israel’s stance that it be allowed to continue building in existing communities, Israeli officials said Sunday.

The officials said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Cabinet would discuss the settlement issue on Monday, though it remained unclear whether the ministers would endorse any changes in policy.

The U.S. has been urging Israel to make a series of gestures to the Palestinians ahead of the Mideast peace conference, which is expected to take place next week in Annapolis, Md.

Key Arab governments will announce Friday if they will attend the conference, said an Arab League official Sunday. Diplomats familiar with the governments’ deliberations hinted that despite reservations about the conference, they would probably attend.

The nations’ ministers, however, will insist that a final statement from the Annapolis meeting include an Israeli agreement to a Saudi-sponsored land-for-peace deal proposed by Arabs in 2002, said another diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

The American proposals have included an Israeli freeze on West Bank settlement construction and a large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel holds roughly 9,000 Palestinian prisoners.

At the upcoming summit, Israel and the Palestinians hope to announce a formal resumption of peace talks, which broke down in violence seven years ago. However, preparations have run into trouble, with the sides unable to agree on a joint blueprint for peace they had hoped to present to the conference.

Only in the mind of a radial Islamist is this permissible. They are truly scum.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least three children and three of the troopers, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.

Seven children were wounded in the attack in Baqouba, where U.S. soldiers wrested control from Al Qaeda in Iraq last summer.

The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as the American military said overall violence is down 55 percent since a troop buildup began this year.

Police said the attack occurred as U.S. soldiers were handing out toys, sports equipment and other treats in a playground near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Few details were available, but the U.S. military said it was a “suicide vest attack” and that three American soldiers were killed.

Rasoul Issam, 16, said he and his friends were playing soccer when the U.S. soldiers called to them from their vehicles to come get gifts.

“We ran toward them and I caught a ball when suddenly an explosion took place about 20 meters (yards) from us,” Issam said from his hospital bed in Baqouba.

Mohammed Sabah, 11, was hit by shrapnel in his hand and chest.

“The soldiers gave me pens and I thanked them. After this the explosion took place and I was hit by shrapnel,” he said. “The second thing I remember is being in the hospital.”

Hillary Clinton might be on one side of the border, then the other when it comes to issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, but Mexican officials know exactly where they stand: no licenses for illegals.

All of Mexico’s 31 states require foreign residents to hold a valid visa if they want a Mexican license, according to a survey published Thursday in The Arizona Republic.

“When it comes to foreigners, we’re a little more strict here,” Alejandro Ruíz, director of education at the Mexican Automobile Association, told the newspaper.

Immigrant drivers became an overnight national campaign issue when Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton responded to a debate question by declared her support for a move by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to issue licenses to illegal immigrants.

“It makes a lot of sense,” Clinton said during the Oct. 30 debate.

She backed away from that support Wednesday when Spitzer announced he was backing off the plan.

Eight U.S. states allow drivers to get licenses without proving they are legal residents, the newspaper reported.

Mexicans account for more than half of the 12 million undocumented residents, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Because of the number of illegal Mexicans residing in the U.S., America’s southern neighbor has battled to open the licensing process in all 50 states.

But licensing offices in all of Mexico’s 31 states — and Mexico City — told The Arizona Republic that proof of citizenship is required.

Temporary tourists can drive using their foreign licenses, the newspaper reported, the same temporary exemption granted visitors to the U.S.

Why Hamas has arrested Jamal al Dura only days after the hotly contested video of the alleged death of his son Mohammed was aired in a Paris courtroom? It became publicly clear that the film was a piece of staged “fauxtography” and that little Mohammed did not die on camera. Who might not want al Dura to talk to journalists or judges? Actually, I am surprised that there really is a Jamal Al Dura…

Why do westerners believe that homosexuals in Arab and Muslim culture are, by definition, the standard-bearers for art and other progressive values? Yasir Arafat allegedly died of AIDS and was long known to be a homosexual. Did Arafat represent a model of liberatory values? Sheikh bin Mahfouz (who has sued at least 38 western authors and news publications and obtained letters of apology from all but Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld who has counter-sued him in New York state) is also allegedly homosexual. Does that mean that he, too, represents ethical or progressive values? Of course, most Arab and Muslim homosexuals are also married and have wives and children.

Homosexuals in ancient Greece and Rome owned slaves and despised women. Some were brilliant philosophers. Many participated in a cult of man-boy love. The same contemporary western homosexuals who failed to condemn or abstain from the “bathhouse culture” which killed so many men in the West in the 1980s are now failing to distinguish between western idealizations of homosexuality as a symbol for both oppression and liberation and the nature of homosexuality among Arabs and Muslims.

Back on the Western ranch: Neither J. Edgar Hoover, who was a cross-dressing homosexual nor Roy Cohn, who was also a homosexual, could be viewed as symbols of aesthetic or political liberation either.

I am just raising some questions on a slow Sunday afternoon.

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Dr. Phyllis Chesler is the well known author of classic works, including the bestseller Women and Madness (1972) and The New Anti-Semitism (2003). She has just published The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan), as well as an updated and revised edition of Women and Madness. She is an Emerita Professor of psychology and women’s studies, the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and the National Women’s Health Network (1974). She is currently on the Board of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and lives in New York City. Her website is www.phyllis-chesler.com.
We are delighted to have Dr. Chesler as a contributor to the Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog.